off the market

Colton Underwood confirms he’s got a boyfriend and is “in love”

 

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Colton Underwood has confirmed to Us Weekly that he’s in a relationship and “in love”.

In September, several media outlets reported that Underwood had been spotted kissing a male friend whilst on vacation in Hawaii.

The pal was identified by several media outlets as political strategist Jordan C. Brown. According to TMZ, Brown, 38, worked on John Kerry’s Presidential campaign in 2004 and Hilary Clinton’s in 2016. Below is a photo of him with Pete and Chasten Buttigieg.

 

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Related: Colton Underwood photographed kissing male friend on Hawaii vacation

Underwood spoke to Us Weekly to promote his new Netflix documentary series, Coming Out Colton. “I’m happy, I’m in love and I’m in a good position,” he said, before confirming he’s introduced his new man to his family.

“Everything as far as that goes has been pretty smooth. What was so cool too was, like, after the show was over, I didn’t know what was really next. I knew that I was still coming out and I still am. So there’s still things to work through right now. … The friends that I have, the support group that I have has been so helpful and impactful.”

However, don’t expect to see anything about his new man on the show. It’s unclear when they began dating, and much of the show was filmed many months ago, at least before Underwood’s coming out in April with an interview on Good Morning America.

Underwood says that with his history on The Bachelor, and being in relationships in the public eye, he wanted this series to focus on coming out and not on his dating life.

“I have been through that. I have done that,” he said. “Even going into the show, that was one of the conversations with the production company. … I’m not in a space right now to really, like, put myself out there like that. I had a lot of self-discovery to do.”

Underwood said he was “not hiding” his new relationship, but wanted him and his boyfriend to enjoy some “time for us”.

Asked if he would ever be comfortable including his new relationship on a reality show, he said: “I don’t want to speak in definitives right now because as I learned, I’m growing and I want to give myself space to really explore new things at the moment. I’ve definitely drawn boundaries on that. Having a public relationship, for me, was not healthy. I just think right now I’m really sort of protecting and guarding what I have.”

Underwood’s last very-public relationship was with Cassie Randolph, who he met in 2018 via The Bachelor. That ended badly in 2020. They split in May of that year, and then in September, Randolph took out a restraining order against Underwood, alleging he stalked her. The order was dropped a couple of months later after the two reached an agreement addressing Randolph’s concerns.

According to Page Six, Randolph declined to be involved with Underwood’s new documentary series.

“Cassie really just wants to move past any drama having to do with Colton,” one source said. “She’s being roped back into all this Colton mess because of the Netflix show. There are a lot of bad memories associated with the end of their relationship and she wishes there was a way to completely separate herself from his narrative.”

The source added, “At her core, Cassie supports Colton telling his story if that helps him and other people in the LGBTQIA+ community. The part that sucks is that there’s really no way for him to tell his story without mentioning their breakup.”

Trailers for the show have shown that Underwood’s behavior toward Randolph is discussed.

“I was suppressing my sexuality so hard that I was taking medication daily to deal with depression and anxiety, and that made me a paranoid freak,” says Underwood on the show, according to New York Post.

“I didn’t trust a whole lot of people, and I was trying to do anything and everything I could to protect a secret.”

He goes on to clarify that he’s not making excuses for his treatment of Randolph after they split.

“I did f–k up,” he says. “I made mistakes, and I will take ownership in that.”

Underwood also reveals in the show that he tried to medicate himself to cope with his feelings and sexuality. He tells a friend, “After the breakup with Cassie, it was pretty rough. I hit rock bottom. I took a lot of Xanax, not thinking I was going to wake up the next morning. I did and it was really bad.”

Related: Literally NOBODY is looking forward to the new Colton Underwood series

The show also shows Underwood coming out on camera to his father, Scott, whilst on a fishing trip.

Talking to the New York Times this week, Scott Underwood said, “I’m not saying I’m upset about it, but I would have preferred it had been done differently.”

He goes on to say, that reflecting upon it, and given his son’s history on The Bachelor, coming out on camera made sense because he’s “an entertainer, let’s face it … That’s what he’s chosen to do for his career.”

Asked about his son’s decision to make the docuseries, his dad continued, “Am I going to say it’s for fame? No. Did he come out on TV for money? Sure. But who in reality entertainment doesn’t leverage their life and put it all out there for money?”

Colton told the NYT that after living his life so publicly as a straight man, he wanted to use the series to show the public his real self.

“I’ve lived my life so publicly straight, and I ran from a community I’ve belonged to my entire life,” Underwood told the NYT. “I knew there was going to be a lot of people who didn’t understand. Maybe at the end of these six episodes, people still don’t understand. But at least I’ve tried to undo the wrongs.”

Coming Out Colton premieres tomorrow on Netflix.

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